Western States Open

Update on October 9: I sorted the advance entry list by section and rating using Excel, and have posted the document on my website. There are presently 187 players signed up, on target for a turnout in the 300s.

The Western States Open is one of my favorite annual tournaments. It is also one of the largest and strongest annual chess events west of the Continental Divide. Organizer Jerry Weikel and his staff work to make the weekend as enjoyable as possible for all. In fact, the Western States draws more players from Northern California than any local adult event except Labor Day. If you still have doubts, read my story in the February 2008 issue of Chess Life about last year's 25th anniversary tournament.

Unfortunately, the October tournament in Reno is a bit difficult for many children to attend. Either you miss school on Friday or you need to take a round 1 bye and drive up in the early afternoon (maybe cutting class for the last hour or two). There is no 2-day schedule in Reno, unlike most other big tournaments. Despite the conflicts, I expect to see a number of local juniors up in Reno, including about a half dozen of my students. Wish us luck!

• Event: Western States Open
  
• Dates: October 17-19
• Location: Sands Regency Hotel and Casino in Reno, NV
• Format: 6 round swiss in 7 sections (Open, Expert, A, B, C, D, U1200)
  
• Schedule: Reg: Fri 8:30-10. Rounds: Fri 12, 7, Sat 10, 6, Sun 9:30, 4.
• Time control: 40/2, 20/1, SD/30 (total of up to seven hours)
  
• Prize fund: $40,000 based on 400 players.
  
• Visit the Reno Chess Club website for entry forms.
• Click on the advance entry list.
  

Although this tournament is hosted at a casino, the chess venue is on the second floor, above the gambling floor. The event is quite kid-friendly and many juniors play each year. If you request a room in the Regency or Dynasty towers, you can take the elevators between your room and the tournament hall without passing through the casino. See you in Reno!

Grandmaster Vinay Bhat!

May I introduce you to Grandmaster Vinay Bhat? After several months of anticipation, the world chess federation FIDE today formally awarded him its highest title. Just 24 years old, Vinay had already earned the required three norms and he improved his rating to 2500 with several successful tournaments in Europe over the summer. As a Grandmaster, he joins 1162 colleagues around the world, including 61 who play under the USA flag.

Vinay grew up in San Jose, cutting his teeth each Thursday night at the Kolty Chess Club in Campbell. His rating rose quickly, already around 1500 by the end of second grade. At the tender age of 10 1/2 years in 1994, Vinay broke the USCF record for youngest master, beating a mark once set by Bobby Fischer decades earlier (and since broken by both Hikaru Nakamura and Nicholas Nip). His rating continued to rise and, at 16, he became an International Master. Vinay took some time off from chess to focus on graduating from Lynbrook High School and the University of California at Berkeley. However, the few occasions that he did play saw him continue to impress, earning GM norms in China (2002) and Spain (2006, 2007). In April 2008, Vinay was awarded the prestigious Samford Fellowship to continue his studies in chess.

Congratulations Vinay on a recognition that is long overdue! To read about Vinay's recent chess adventures and get a feel for his great personality, check out his insightful blog, complete with commentary about games from tournaments in Europe and America.

Update on Wednesday night: What did America's newest Grandmaster do to celebrate? He beat the country's #2 rated player, GM Hikaru Nakamura (2751), in US Chess League action for the second year in a row. Click here to replay this year's game.

Alan Naroditsky Interview

(Alan Naroditsky proudly stands together with his well-known little brother.)

NM Jonathan Hilton, the intrepid young reporter for Chess Life Online and editor of the weekly newsletter for World Chess Live, recently interviewed local high school senior Alan Naroditsky for the "KibBlitzing" series. Click here to read this fun Q&A.

Whenever he attends a chess tournament, Alan will always be known as "the other" Naroditsky. Having a younger brother who has achieved so much is hardly easy; yet, I have always admired how Alan has never let that fact limit his own, more modest, ambitions in chess. The following response in the interview further shows the respect for his "kid bro".

- Who are your role models in chess?
My role model in chess is definitely my brother. It doesn't matter that I taught him the moves a long time ago; now he's teaching me!

Judging from Alan's FIDE rating of 2133, the young coach has done a pretty decent job! Perhaps Alan would be even higher rated if he didn't commit many hours of time each week to nurturing his bigger talent: playing the piano. Go Alan! Keep up both activities!

Practice Makes Perfect

Here is a post that I first wrote in February.

Every few months, I beg my students to take advantage of the opportunity they have to practice chess against live opponents on the Internet Chess Club (or even other game sites). In fact, the internet is the #1 reason why kids are more advanced than their counterparts even 10 or 15 years ago. Today anyone can easily find a strong opponent from the comfort of home without having to drive to a chess club or a tournament.

Think about it this way: playing chess is like playing a sport or an instrument. Your coach can demonstrate new techniques to you, but in the end, it all comes down to you executing. You need to spend time repeating your moves or your songs, over and over. Practice makes perfect! In fact, you can't lie to your sports or music teacher because he or she can easily tell who diligent and who was lazy. Chess is not much different.

The fastest way to get a game on ICC is to join one of the so-called pools. When you enter one of the pools, you wait a few seconds (up to a minute or two for the slow pool) and a game with a human opponent near your rating will automatically pop up. You don't need to issue a seek or do anything else. It is that easy! I highly recommend the 15-minute and 5-minute pools to anyone trying to improve or looking for practice.

• type 5 for the 5-minute pool - practice tactics and try out openings
• type 15 for the 15-minute pool - more time to think and calculate
• type 1 for the 1-minute pool - exercise your mouse (warning: fun yet addictive)

Now what are you waiting for? Get off your %$@# behind and get some practice!

Hip Hop Chess Federation on October 11 at Cow Palace

Update on Thursday evening: This event has apparently been rescheduled to February 2009. I don't know the full details, except that the change was only publicized today.

Do you like chess, martial arts or rap music? Perhaps you like all three of these activities. In that case, check out the latest event hosted by the Hip Hop Chess Federation on October 11 at the Cow Palace just south of San Francisco. The tentative schedule for the Chess Kings Invitational 2008 includes a scholastic tournament, blindfold chess, a Jiu-Jitsu exhibition and two panel discussions. Special guests include recording artist RZA of the Wu Tang Clan and International Master turned martial arts champion Josh Waitzkin. Young Josh was a child prodigy who became the subject of the popular 1993 chess movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer". The chess activities will be organized by local gurus Alan Kirshner and Salman Azhar.

CalChess FIDE Rated Juniors

The following list includes all juniors (grades K-12) living in Northern California who have a published FIDE rating. Source: October 2008 FIDE rating list. The top two players, pictured above, have both gained over 200 (!) points since October of last year.

1. FM Sam Shankland 2436
2. FM Daniel Naroditsky 2382
3. NM Gregory Young 2264
4. NM Steven Zierk 2240
5. Rohan Agarwal 2176
6. NM Nicholas Nip 2150
7. Alan Naroditsky 2133
8. Adarsh Konda 2115
9. Michael Zhong 2113
10. Adam Goldberg 2008
11. Louiza Livschitz 1972
12. Micah Cohen 1891
    

CalChess FIDE Top 20

The following list includes the top 20 players (plus ties) presently living in Northern California who played in at least one FIDE rated event on the West Coast during the past year. Source: October 2008 FIDE rating list.

Newcomers to these rankings include IM Andrei Florean (photo upper left), who moved to California from the East and recently flirted with a GM norm at the strong Miami Open, Stanford University freshman FM Elliott Liu, who has two IM norms, University of California at Berkeley freshman NM Julian Landaw and finally local rising star NM Steven Zierk (photo upper right), who gained a whopping 108 FIDE points in three months.

1. IM Josh Friedel 2498 (GM-elect)
2. IM Vinay Bhat 2498 (GM-elect)
3. FM Sam Shankland 2436
4. GM Walter Browne 2435
5. IM David Pruess 2422
6. IM Andrei Florean 2420
7. IM John Donaldson 2411
8. IM Ricardo DeGuzman 2409
9. IM Vladimir Mezentsev 2405
10. FM Vladimir Strugatsky 2397
11. IM Dmitry Zilberstein 2393
12. FM Daniel Naroditsky 2382
13. IM John Grefe 2348
14. FM Elliott Liu 2356
15. FM Shiv Shivaji 2308
16. WIM Batchimeg Tuvshintugs 2293
17. NM Julian Landaw 2286
18. NM Gregory Young 2264
19. NM Nicolas Yap 2255
20. NM Steven Zierk 2240
21. NM Andy Lee 2240

The Next Generation of Chess Masters

He is half the age of 10 year old master Nicholas Nip--and nearly half of his rating too! World U12 Champion Danya Naroditsky would (for once) be considered an "experienced veteran" compared to this young lad. Local GM-elects Vinay Bhat and Josh Friedel, both merely in their young 20s, are even old enough to be his father (maybe I'm pushing it).

Please join me in welcoming Arun Khemani to the local chess scene. At 1047 on the October Top 100 list, he is the only 5 year old in the country with an established USCF rating above 1000. His current rating is even higher than my first USCF rating of 1023 when I was 18 years old. Of course, Arun plays for fun and still has a long way to go to become a serious competitor. So far, however, he appears to be on the right track after scoring 50% in the U1400 section at the CalChess Labor Day tournament. Good luck Arun!

Top FIDE Ratings for October

The world chess federation FIDE released its October rating list this morning. Former FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov (see photo) has taken over the top spot at 2791, just a nose ahead of Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk and Magnus Carlsen. A whopping 32 Grandmasters have achieved "super GM" status with a rating above 2700.

There has been plenty of action over the past three months. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand sits in 5th place and former champion Vladimir Kramnik occupies the 6th place. Amazingly, Anand had been rated in the top three continuously for the past 11 years! Nonetheless, Anand is just 8 rating points out of first and even Kramnik is merely 19 points away. Look further down the rating list for well established names such as Peter Svidler, Alexei Shirov and Alexander Grischuk, all who barely made the top 20 (including ties).

1. Veselin Topalov, 2791, Bulgaria
   
2. Alexander Morozevich, 2787, Russia
   
3. Vassily Ivanchuk, 2786, Ukraine
   
4. Magnus Carlsen, 2786, Norway
   
5. Viswanathan Anand, 2783, India
   
6. Vladimir Kramnik, 2772, Russia
   
7. Levon Aronian, 2757, Armenia
   
8. Teimour Radjabov, 2751, Azerbaijan
   
9. Peter Leko, 2747, Hungary
   
10. Dmitry Jakovenko, 2737, Russia
    
11. Yue Wang, 2736, China
    
12. Michael Adams, 2734, England
    
13. Sergei Movsesian, 2732, Slovakia
    
14. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 2731, Azerbaijan
    
15. Sergey Karjakin, 2730, Ukraine
    
16. Gata Kamsky, 2729, USA
    
17. Peter Svidler, 2727, Russia
    
18. Alexei Shirov, 2726, Spain
    
19. Pavel Eljanov, 2720, Ukraine
    
20. Boris Gelfand, 2719, Israel
    
21. Lenier Dominguez, 2719, Cuba
    
22. Ruslan Ponomariov, 2719, Ukraine
    
23. Alexander Grischuk, 2719, Russia

The Chinese assualt on the top of the ratings charts continues this month with three super GMs. Joining #11 Wang Yue are #26 Bu Xiangzhi (2714) and #28 Ni Hua (2710). The next Chinese player is already knocking on the door: 18 year old Wang Hao (2696).

We can contrast that to the United States, which has only one player in the top 20 (Gata Kamsky) and then one more in the top 80! The lone bright spot remains Hikaru Nakamura, whose 2704 rating places him at exactly #30. Can he go higher?

Earth vs Space Match

Here's some news that's really out of this world! Astronaut Greg Chamitoff from the International Space Station has challenged us Earthlings to a friendly game of chess. Each day, the astronaut will make his moves on a Velcro chess board in space and relay them to Mission Control in Houston. All Earthlings may then vote on the response and the most popular move will be played. (USCF membership is not required to participate!) To help us decide, the national champion chess team from Stevenson Elementary School in Bellevue, Washington will recommend up to four moves for us to vote on each turn.

Playing white, Chamitoff opened with 1.d4. Earth must now choose between d5, Nf6, e6 and f5. You can guess what I picked, but don't let that influence your choice. :-)

If you never participated in such a format, check out Wikipedia for Kasparov versus The World in 1999. Kasparov finally won after 62 moves over 4 months in probably the most heavily analyzed chess game ever. Read the Wiki page for an in-depth annotation of the game or simply click to play through this remarkable game.

Update on Monday afternoon: 1.d4 Nf6 was played. We now await Chamitoff's response.

October Top 100 Lists and CalChess Top 20

(This photo, taken over the summer at a session of the San Francisco School of Chess, includes three gold medalists, one silver medalist and one bronze medalist.)

The USCF has posted the October Top 100 lists a few days early. This rating supplement includes tournaments rated by September 5, thus including Labor Day weekend. In a sign of the increasing dominance of Northern California scholastic chess, the number of local juniors ranked for their age increased to 99 in October (up from 93 in June) Check out the CalChess Top 100 lists for the complete rankings.

Eight kids have earned gold medals for being ranked in the top 5 of the nation for their age. Three are ranked #1 and two more are #2. Welcome to new Bay Area resident Samuel Sevian, a 7 year old formerly from Florida who sports an amazing rating of 1889! Samuel joins the elite club of Nicholas Nip and Daniel Naroditsky as top rated players for their age. Special kudos to Arun Khemani, who at 1047 is the top 5 year old in the nation!

GOLD MEDAL (top 5)
Arun Khemani (#1 age 5)
Samuel Sevian (#1 age 7)
Tanuj Vasudeva (#5 age 7)
NM Nicholas Nip (#1 age 10)
Yian Liou (#3 age 11)
FM Daniel Naroditsky (#1 age 12, see photo)
NM Gregory Young (#2 age 13)
NM Steven Zierk (#5 age 15, see photo)
FM Sam Shankland (#2 age 16)

Players ranked in the top 10 and top 25 of the country also deserve a special recognition. The silver medal list has doubled in size this summer. The names shown in bold and italics are all current or former students of mine.

SILVER MEDAL (top 10)
Vignesh Panchanatham (#8 age 8)
Cameron Wheeler (#10 age 8)
Jack Zhu (#7 age 9)
Kyle Shin (#9 age 10)
Nicholas Yap (#6 age 18)
Daniel Schwarz (#7 age 18, see photo)

BRONZE MEDAL (top 25)
Jeffrey Tao, John Canessa, Armaan Kalyanpur, Richard Yi, Allan Beilin, Kesav Viswanadha, Paul Richter, Daniel Liu, Daniel Zheng, Jerome Sun, Sam Bekker, Andrew Yeh, Rohan Agarwal, Evan Sandberg, Adarsh Konda, David Chock, NM Drake Wang

Also check out the Top 20 lists on the CalChess website. Can any of my readers believe that there are seven Bay Area kids in K-6 rated above 1800, including two over 2000? Another eight Elementary age kids are rated 1600 and up. The Junior High + High School rankings are topped by two FIDE Masters, two National Masters and an unprecedented seven experts. Incredibly, CalChess boasts 13 young players age 17 and younger who are rated over 2000, not including the five 18 year old masters who attend local colleges and universities!

CalChess Top 5 Elementary (age 11 & under)

1. NM Nicholas Nip, 2207
2. Yian Liou, 2050
3. Samuel Sevian, 1889
4. Daniel Zheng, 1871
5. Kyle Shin, 1846

CalChess Top 5 JHS and HS (age 12-17)

1. FM Sam Shankland, 2425
2. FM Daniel Naroditsky, 2355
3. NM Steven Zierk, 2252
4. NM Gregory Young, 2248 (see photo)
   
5. Rohan Agarwal, 2173
   

USCF Top 100 Juniors (U21) for October

A whopping ten Northern California juniors are ranked on the USCF Top 100 Juniors (U21) list for October. After an amazing streak of success this summer, CalChess State Champion FM Sam Shankland, standing in front of the demo board at right, has cracked the top 10. This total does not include a pair of talented college freshmen from Southern California and another from Texas who now attend local universities. Congratulations to all these young men!

How does our state compare to others? New York, which boasts 17 players on the Top 100 Juniors, including the top four (GM Nakamura, IM Hess, IM Lenderman and IM Milman). Texas has 11 ranked players, mostly due to recruiting by chess programs at several universities. Southern California is tied with CalChess at 10 each. No other state has more than a half dozen, with New Jersey at 5 and Florida at 4.

• #9 FM Sam Shankland, 16
• #11 FM Elliott Liu, 18 (from Southern California)
• #19 FM Daniel Naroditsky, 12
• #24 NM Nicolas Yap, 18
• #27 NM Daniel Schwarz, 18
• #33 NM Julian Landaw, 18 (from Southern California)
• #38 NM Matthew Ho, 20
  
• #43 NM Drake Wang, 18
• #48 NM Steven Zierk, 15
• #53 NM Gregory Young, 13
• #73 NM Nicholas Nip, 10
• #97 Rohan Agarwal, 15
• #97 Jimmy Heiserman, 19 (from Texas)
  

US Chess League Showdown on Wednesday

Wednesday at 5:30pm

Watch at Mechanics' Institute or on ICC!

Since Monday marked the official beginning of autumn, we can expect some signs of the season. Students return to their studies at school or college. Politicians gear up for the elections on the first weekend of November. Retailers order merchandise for the holiday shopping season. Sports fans cheer for their favorite football teams or prepare for the baseball playoffs. And chess players also have the opportunity to support their favorite players and teams.

The US Chess League consists of 14 teams in cities ranging from New York to Miami to Arizona and Seattle. The Dallas Destiny, a team comprised largely of students at the University of Texas at Dallas, won the league last year. However, the two teams with the highest historical winning percentage over the first three seasons of the league's existence are the San Francisco Mechanics (68%) and the Boston Blitz (63%).

As luck would have it, the Mechanics face the Blitz this Wednesday at 5:30 Pacific / 8:30 Eastern. Despite their long history of success, these two teams have gone different ways to begin the 2008 campaign. The Blitz stands at 50%, having lost two straight matches and struggling to find wins on the top two boards (one win and two losses). On the other hand, the Mechanics engine appears to run smoothly with a 3.5-0.5 match record fueled by youthful success on the bottom two boards (five wins against two losses).

Here is the fight card for this week. The first player in each pairing is from San Francisco; the second from Boston. San Francisco has white on boards 1+3 and black on 2+4.

• GM-elect Vinay Bhat versus GM Larry Christiansen. The brilliance of a prodigy who recently earned the top title in chess versus the cunningness of the skilled veteran.
• IM David Pruess versus SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun. Fire against fire. There's no doubt which game "Misha" will be watching when he logs in from heaven.
• FM Sam Shankland vs NM Marc Esserman. Two 2400+ rated rising stars go head to head in what should be a cage fight. This is definitely the game to watch.
• FM Daniel Naroditsky vs NM Ilya Krasik. Normally Russians score well in chess against non-Russians. What if both players are Russian? May youth be served!

If you want to read more, check out the previews from both teams on their official blogs. My friend Chris Bird wrote for the Boston Blitz while my other friend GM-elect Josh Friedel, for unknown reasons, prognosticated a 3.5-2.0 (!?) defeat for the San Francisco Mechanics. Thank goodness Josh won't be playing!

I plan to watch the action live on ICC between my chess lessons! What about you? And what is my prediction? Mechanics win 3:1 with four decisive games.









Update on Wednesday night: Unfortunately, San Francisco lost by 1:3 to Boston, with a pair of draws earned by Sam Shankland and Daniel Naroditsky. Kudos to Boston's top boards GM Larry Christiansen and SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun for their victories.

Disney's EPCOT Center

My dad took this photo with my cell phone. Here I am in front of the 18 story tall sphere that is the trademark of Disney World's EPCOT Center theme park. The acronym stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. This multinational exhibit was one of my favorite place to visit back in my youth.

Labor Day Recap

(Photos of top players by Richard Shorman. From left to right: 2008 State Champion FM Sam Shankland, NM Daniel Schwarz and IM Dmitry Zilberstein. For more photos, please visit the excellent local website ChessDryad.)

Click here for the corrected link to my photos from Labor Day.

I briefly wish to revisit the Labor Day Festival, a.k.a. the CalChess State Championship. If there was one central theme this year, it must have been the impressive performance of elite kids, especially in the top sections. Has the fledgling San Francisco School of Chess already paid dividends or is this an indication of greater things to come?

Look no further than 1st place in the Master section and you'll find high school senior FM Sam Shankland. After beating a pair of big name Grandmasters and winning two of the strongest adult tournaments in California, "Shanky" is rated 2425 USCF and 2436 FIDE! At this rate, he will soon complete his final two IM norms and begin shooting for the GM title.

Shankland was not the only elite junior to achieve success up on the hill in San Francisco. Here are a few more highlights, limited just to my own pool of students:

• Longtime student and Stanford sophomore NM Daniel Schwarz tied for 2nd overall with an undefeated 4.5/6, beating IM Ricardo DeGuzman once again.
• NM Steven Zierk also defeated DeGuzman and drew with GM-elect Vinay Bhat. His FIDE rating will jump 108 points to 2240 on the upcoming October list.
• NM Gregory Young drew with both Bhat and IM Dmitry Zilberstein and will be rated 2264 FIDE, just 36 points away from becoming the Bay Area's third FM.
• The new kid on the block, 11 year old expert Yian Liou, beat IM Walter Shipman for his first IM scalp. His provisional FIDE performance rating was an impressive 2229!
• Evan Sandberg gained 29 points for 4.0/6 in Expert section, up to 2051.
• Michael Lin gained 62 points for 3.5/6 in Expert section, up to 1933.

Way to go guys! Keep up the good work and no doubt more success will come your way!

Fpawn Survives Hanna While on Vacation in Florida

(This is the crown jewel of civil engineering in the Florida Keys: the Seven Mile Bridge between the city of Marathon and Little Duck Key. Depending on the weather, the ocean may look blue, light blue or even teal!)

I returned from my Florida vacation a few days ago and have now resumed my busy teaching schedule for the fall months. Fortunately, I am more relaxed and energetic after this much needed break from chess and everything else. In fact, I left my laptop at home and spent a total of only 2-3 hours on the internet over the course of two weeks.

Perhaps many of my readers did not know that I grew up in Florida. I lived for a few years on the Florida Keys while my father worked on the Seven Mile Bridge. However, I spent the bulk of my school years living in St. Petersburg (not Russia) and graduated summa cum lauda from St. Petersburg High School in 1992 (see photo at right). Last week, I saw my high school for the first time in 16 years and even met a couple of my old friends from what feels like a prior incarnation. I could hardly believe that some are married--with children! A lot has changed over the years. For example, our neighborhood strip mall in St. Pete was replaced by a WalMart supercenter!

Some of you have wondered whether my travel plans were impacted by Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Ike. Yes, we had to change plans, but all turned out well. We intended to visit the Florida Keys on the same days that Ike was threatening to hit before it went further south. Consequently, we stayed longer in the resort town of Daytona Beach and rode out the winds, rain and spectacular waves from Hanna in a beach-front, ocean-facing, 5th floor hotel room. Thanks to the fact that the hotels were almost completely empty, we slept in fancy suites while paying internet room rates. Fortunately, we still were able to visit Marathon and Key West on the last two days of our vacation. We even saw a few of author Ernest Hemingway's famous six-toed cats.

Fpawn on Vacation Until September 13

Your humble blogger is away on a much needed break from chess for two weeks. My family vacation will be in Florida, the state where I lived for most of my school years (K-12). In many ways, this is a trip down memory lane to places such as the Florida Keys and my alma mater St. Petersburg High School, the home of the Green Devils. I have not visited my old hometown nor spoken with many old friends for 16 years. These weeks will also offer an opportunity to relax on the sands of Daytona Beach (check out this cool webcam), the Keys and St. Pete Beach. Hopefully the state won't be hit by any hurricanes. <crossing fingers>

I will not bring my laptop on this trip so that I can't get tempted to study chess. I may check my email every few days, but don't expect any further blog updates until I return home. And in case anyone is wondering, no I will not play in the big Miami Open.

Shankland PWNS CalChess State Championship

The leaner and meaner FM Sam Shankland (photo at left by Shorman) once again demonstrated that he is a primordial force to be reckoned with in Northern California chess. Although he has yet to win the CalChess Scholastics, "Shanky" can now call himself State Champion after his success over Labor Day weekend at the Golden Gateway Holiday Inn in San Francisco. He scored an undefeated 5.0 out of 6, including this refutation of the St. George's opening essayed by IM Andrei Florean. Shankland drew twice over the weekend against both of the players who tied for second place at 4.5: NM Daniel Schwarz and IM Dmitry Zilberstein. Congratulations to Sam on a successful summer that included an IM norm at the World Open, top honors at Agoura Hills, impressive wins against Grandmasters Shabalov and Erenburg, and last but not least a state title!

Sam Shankland (2410) vs Andrei Florean (2465)
1. e4 a6 2. d4 b5 3. Bd3 Bb7 4. Qe2 e6 5. a4 c5 6. dxc5 b4 7. Nf3 Bxc5 8. Nbd2 d6 9. Nb3 Nd7 10. O-O Ngf6 11. Bd2 O-O 12. a5 Qb8 13. Rfd1 Rd8 14. h3 h6 15. Qe1 Ra7 16. Nfd4 Kh8 17. f3 e5 18. Nxc5 Nxc5 19. Nf5 Nxd3 20. cxd3 Bc8 21. Nxh6 Nh7 22. Ng4 b3 23. Ne3 Be6 24. Bc3 f6 25. d4 Ng5 26. dxe5 dxe5 27. Bxe5 Qa8 28. Bc3 Re8 29. Qg3 Rb7 30. e5 Nh7 31. exf6 gxf6 32. Qf4 Rg7 33. Kh2 Qa7 34. Rd6 Kg8 35. Rad1 Bd7 36. Bd4 Qb8 37. Rd2 Rg6 38. Bc3 Be6 39. Qb4 Qc8 40. Qb6 Bxh3 41. Rd8 1-0

Final standings of Master section

• 5.0 FM Sam Shankland
• 4.5 NM Daniel Schwarz and IM Dmitry Zilberstein
• 4.0 IM Andrei Florean, NM Drake Wang, NM Nicolas Yap

The weekend was marked by a slew of upsets by Northern California's pool of talented younger players against internationally titled masters. The two players that everyone expected to battle for top honors didn't even stay in contention!? GM-elect Vinay Bhat drew twice with teenage masters Steven Zierk and Gregory Young before losing to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo sophomore NM Drake Wang. Joining the upset parade, the Bay Area's most active titled player, IM Ricardo DeGuzman, castled short against a pair of my students, losing to NM Schwarz for the second time this year before also losing to NM Zierk. Even 11 year old expert Yian Liou got into the act by beating veteran IM Walter Shipman for the first IM scalp of his young life! Considering all these upsets, perhaps the smartest person this weekend was two-time defending state champion GM-elect Josh Friedel, who wisely took a break from chess after a busy summer of tournaments.

(Photo by Shorman of the top board action in round 2. On board 1, NM Zierk played GM-elect Bhat while on board 2, IM Zilberstein faced NM Young. Both games were drawn.)
The annual CalChess Labor Day Festival drew a total of 160 players in six sections and paid out the advertised prize fund of about $5,500. Organizer Richard Koepcke received assistance from CalChess President and Chief TD Tom Langland and NTD John McCumiskey. Thanks guys for a smooth and enjoyable weekend!

While I have concentrated on the Master section in this story, I wish to close by recognizing the various champions in lower divisions. Kudos to them as well!

• Expert = Reynaldo Salvatierra and Dana Mackenzie
• Class A = Daniel Zheng and Arun Gomatan
• Class B = Chris Tsai
• Class C = Harold Parker, Donovan Zhao, Albert Lin and Gabriel Ki
• Class D/E/unr = Seid Seidov (only 6-0 score of the entire weekend)

Final standings: http://sacramentochessclub.org/weekend_events/2008laborday.htm
Photos by Richard Shorman on ChessDryad.
Photos by Michael Aigner on Flickr.

CalChess Labor Day

(Players on the top two boards for round 2: NM Steven Zierk and IM Dmitry Zilberstein on left squared off against GM-elect Vinay Bhat and NM Gregory Young on the right.)

The annual CalChess Labor Day festival, also known as the adult state championship, takes place this weekend at the Golden Gateway Holiday Inn in San Francisco. This event, with six rating categories and two different playing schedules, draws more players each year than any other adult tournament in northern California. With over 120 advance entries and another 25 on-site entries on Saturday, the total attendance should once again reach 170.

The Master section is reasonably strong but also quite large. The top players include GM-elect Vinay Bhat and IM Dmitry Zilberstein in the 3-day schedule plus IM Ricardo DeGuzman, fresh off his dominating 8.0/9 result in the Alan Benson IM tournament, signed up for the 2-day schedule. After two rounds in 3-day, FM Sam Shankland and your reporter are the only 2-0 scores because my star students NM Steven Zierk and NM Gregory Young impressively drew their second round contests against Bhat and Zilberstein, respectively. Kudos also to my 11 year old student Yian Liou for taking down veteran IM Walter Shipman in the first round.

Click here for pairings and standings throughout the weekend. Richard Shorman took some photos yesterday, which will probably appear on the ChessDryad website soon.

Shankland Nears IM Norm, But Faces Naroditsky

As the Alan Benson IM Norm Tournament wraps up this week at the Mechanics' Institute, it has become clear that a single game will determine the fate of both of the top norm contenders. FM Sam Shankland (photo at left) took care of business by defeating former US Champion IM John Grefe and now merely has to win his final game with the black pieces to earn his second IM norm. However, his opponent will be none other than FM Danya Naroditsky (photo at right), back home after several weeks of intense chess training in Moscow. In fact, Danya still hopes for his own norm, needing to score 3.0 out of 4 games, including today's contest against tournament leader IM Ricardo DeGuzman. Who will win the crucial Naroditsky vs Shankland game? Stay tuned on Thursday!

Update on Wednesday afternoon: Naroditsky lost to DeGuzman and now needs to win his final three games. Kudos to IM Ricardo DeGuzman for dominating the Alan Benson IM Norm Tournament!

Update on Thursday night: Naroditsky and Shankland drew their head-to-head encounter, thereby knocking both competitors out of norm contention. On the bright side, Naroditsky played a brilliant sacrificial attack this morning to defeat Grefe.

Final Standings

1. 8.0/9 IM Ricardo DeGuzman (2389 +287)
2. 6.0/9 FM Sam Shankland (2368 +69)
3. 6.0/9 IM Vladimir Mezentsev (2400 +34)
4. 5.5/9 FM Daniel Naroditsky (2311 +91)
5. 4.0/9 NM Michael Aigner (2234 +59)
6. 4.0/9 NM Gregory Young (2233 +60)
7. 3.0/9 IM Odondoo Ganbold (2380 -184)
8. 3.0/9 IM John Grefe (2369 -172)
9. 3.0/9 FM Richard Lobo (2261 -52)
   
10. 2.5/9 FM Bela Evans (2279 -117)

• +7 DeGuzman
• +3 Mezentsev, Shankland
• +2 Naroditsky
• -1 Aigner, Young
  
• -3 Ganbold, Grefe, Lobo
  
• -4 Evans

Two World Champions

Globe trotting Northern California junior FM Danya Naroditsky poses with GM Vladimir Kramnik at the Tal Memorial in Moscow. The 2007 World U12 Champion meets the World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2007! Perhaps Danya hopes to play in this tournament in 10 years, but this year marked the domination of GM Vassily Ivanchuk, a full point ahead of Kramnik and others in the final standings. (Thanks to the Naroditsky family for this photo.)

Benson IM Tournament Wraps Up Soon

The Alan Benson IM Norm Tournament will wrap up this week, just in time for the Labor Day weekend. Over 2/3 of the games are completed and the standings begin to take on some meaning. IM Ricardo DeGuzman (photo at left by Mark Shelton of ChessDryad) has been on fire, winning five games while yielding draws only to Grefe and Aigner. Moreover, DeGuzman already defeated both of his nearest competitors: IM Vladimir Mezentsev and FM Sam Shankland.

Current Standings (updated through Monday afternoon)

1. 6.0/7 IM Ricardo DeGuzman (2389 +249)
2. 4.5/7 FM Sam Shankland (2368 +44)
3. 4.5/7 IM Vladimir Mezentsev (2400 +6)
4. 3.5/6 NM Gregory Young (2233 +160)
5. 3.5/8 NM Michael Aigner (2234 +49)
6. 2.5/6 IM John Grefe (2369 -103)
7. 2.5/7 IM Odondoo Ganbold (2380 -172)
8. 2.0/3 FM Daniel Naroditsky (2311 +101)
9. 2.0/8 FM Richard Lobo (2261 -116)
10. 1.0/5 FM Bela Evans (2279 -167)

• +5 DeGuzman
• +2 Mezentsev, Shankland
• +1 Naroditsky, Young
• -1 Grefe, Aigner
• -2 Ganbold
• -3 Evans
• -4 Lobo
  

The three young participants all remain mathematically alive for an IM norm:

• Sam Shankland suffered a major blow by losing to DeGuzman on Saturday, but he pulled himself together in time to beat Mezentsev with black on Sunday. Sam needs to win both of his remaining games: white versus Grefe and black versus Naroditsky.
• As the lowest rated player in the field, Gregory Young wasn't expected to be a serious norm contender on paper. Yet after six games, he drew three of four IMs. He needs 2.5/3 for an IM norm, facing Naroditsky, DeGuzman and Evans all with black.
• Daniel Naroditsky returned from his trip to Moscow on Sunday and has to quickly recover from jet lag. He will be quite busy with six more tournament games plus a US Chess League contest, all before Friday afternoon.
  

Good luck to all three norm contenders as they finish this tournament. Will anyone succeed in reaching the necessary score for an IM norm? Stay tuned! Your reporter will follow the results closely while preparing for his own final game: white versus 1973 US Chess Champion IM John Grefe on Friday afternoon.

Fpawn Rating List - September 2008

I have updated the USCF rating for all of my chess students using the September rating supplement that is now available on the MSA site. Please note that I have incremented everyone's grade by +1; I hope that none of my students flunked a year in school. ;-)

You may view the full Fpawn Rating List by clicking on the link. Congratulations to the following students who officially broke into the next highest rating class: Steven (2200), EvanS (2000), Yian (2000), Nicholas (1800), DanielL (1600) and EvanY (1600). Special kudos to Steven Zierk (see photo below) for earning the well-deserved NM title!

Top 5 Students Overall

1. NM Steven 2246
2. NM Gregory 2227
3. Alan 2037
   
4. EvanS 2020
5. Yian 2019
   

(Honorary: FM Danya 2339, NM Daniel 2288 and David 2094)

Top 5 Grades K-6

1. Yian 2019 -- CalChess Elementary (K-6) Champion
   
2. Kyle 1840 -- CalChess Elementary (K-5) co-Champion
3. James 1739
   
4. DanielL 1629
   
5. Neel 1620
   

Top 5 Grades 7-8

1. NM Gregory 2227 -- US Junior (U21) co-Champion
2. Sam 1931
   
3. Alex 1750
   
4. Andrew 1682
   
5. KevinG 1657
   

Top 5 Grades 9-12

1. NM Steven 2246 -- CalChess High School co-Champion and Denker representative
2. Alan 2037
   
3. EvanS 2020
   
4. Jeff 1996 -- CalChess High School co-Champion
   
5. Adam 1909

Advance Entries for Labor Day

Make sure to sign up for the CalChess Labor Day State Championship before Monday's postmark deadline, or else plan to show up an hour before round 1. This tournament at the Golden Gateway Holiday Inn in San Francisco routinely draws about 175 players, including several International Masters and the Bay Area's top juniors. It is traditionally the largest and strongest chess event each year in Northern California. Check out last year's crosstables. The organizer is Richard Koepcke and the chief TD is John McCumiskey.

• tournament flyer
• advance entry list
  

US Chess School Bio Article

(These photos were posted on the lizzyknowsall.blogspot.com blog. At left, Gregory plays blitz. At right, Sam stands and preaches to the choir.)

Check out the latest exciting article by Elizabeth Vicary on Chess Life Online. She interviewed all eight of the young participants (no pun intended) at the US Chess School in New Jersey a week ago and produced a novella that could have been titled "Young Chess Masters: What Does It Take?" Of course, the sections about Sam Shankland and Gregory Young are especially enlightening because we know these young men (pun intended) very well, but I would read the rest too.

If you're 1800 and wondering what it takes to become a master, I think Elizabeth Vicary found the answer for you. Read and learn! For example, most of the students spoke about the importance of studying tactics regularly. Yet Victor Shen takes it one step further: "There are many different types of tactics: kids are good at calculating forced lines, long variations that end in mate, but they are less good when the positions are unclear or the variations are unforced. Also, they aren’t so great at endgame tactics." Chess isn't just about finding checkmates or winning material. That's why many of these young men emphasized studying Grandmaster games.

Do You Want to be Part of the SF School of Chess?

(The above students in group 2 range in rating from 1850 to 2050.)

The San Francisco School of Chess is recruiting interested students (K-12) for its second season of classes from October through January. The exact dates have yet to be determined, but will be roughly once a month. All classes are 2-3 hours long and take place on weekends at the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club in downtown San Francisco. Sponsored through the Mechanics' Institute, the instructors so far in the exciting first year have included Grandmasters Gregory Kaidanov and Melik Khachiyan plus IM David Pruess. There will be a nominal fee for students. Please visit this informational website for additional details, including the School's philosophy.

Students will be divided into three groups with the following rating divisions:

1. Juniors rated over 2100.
2. Juniors rated over 1800.
3. Elementary (K-6) kids rated over 1600 + Primary (K-3) kids rated over 1400 + Top Northern California Girls
   

A word about the selection process: We are lucky to have many promising players in the area right now, and we do not yet have the capacity to accomodate everyone. In the interest of keeping classes focused and productive, we will keep the class sizes somewhat small. In addition to chess playing strength, our main criteria for who can attend will be based on commitment. Students are expected to commit to participating in most of the sessions (at least 3 out of 4) and remaining active in chess events outside of our program. Players who are active at the Mechanics’ Institute tournaments may stand a better chance of being noticed for this special opportunity. Finally, if the dates of our sessions do not work, don’t despair! We will update our schedule and invitation list periodically throughout the year.

If you are interested in the San Francisco School of Chess, can commit to attending 3 out of 4 weekend classes in October through January and fit into one of the above rating categories, contact IM David Pruess by the end of August. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask either Pruess, Mechanics' Institute Chess Room Director IM John Donaldson or myself. Email addresses may be found at the informational website.

Update for the Benson IM Tournament

This summer's IM norm tournament at the Mechanics' Institute (see photo of chess room above) now stands at the halfway point, with 22 out of 45 games played. Everyone has played at least twice while two have six results and I finished eight (out of nine). The other half of this invitational event, aptly named after Berkeley area chess master Alan Benson, will be completed over the next week, finishing just before the Labor Day tournament begins. Click here for a complete list of participants, all ranging in rating from 2233 to 2400.

Since players have completed a different number of games, the following standings are presented in plus/minus format, e.g. number of wins minus number of losses.

Current Standings (updated through Thursday afternoon)

• +3 IM Ricardo DeGuzman
• +2 IM Vladimir Mezentsev (photo at right)
• +1 FM Sam Shankland, FM Daniel Naroditsky, NM Gregory Young
  
• -1 IM John Grefe, FM Bela Evans, NM Michael Aigner
• -2 IM Odondoo Ganbold
• -3 FM Richard Lobo

All three of the young norm seekers still have a majority of their games left to play. Sam drew his first three games and now has his work cut out for him: he nearly must run the table with 5.0 out of 6 to claim a norm. If anyone can do it, Sam can! Daniel (needs 5.0 out of 7) and Gregory (needs 3.0 out of 5) are both in considerably better shape. One interesting pairing that could change this outlook takes place on Thursday: Gregory white versus Sam (update: Sam won).

Readers of this blog may recall that I had a game against my longtime nemesis on Tuesday afternoon. This was the 31st time that IM Ricardo DeGuzman (see photo below) and I have crossed swords (prior record +1 =8 -21). While I am very pleased to have drawn this 110 move game as black, neither of us should be proud with the quality of play. Two monkeys would surely have found stronger moves than we both did at critical moments. Here is a sample of this blunderfest:

Ricardo DeGuzman (2389) vs Michael Aigner (2234)
1. d4 f5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 g6 4. c4 Bg7 5. Nc3 d6 6. Nf3 O-O 7. O-O Qe8 8. b3 e5 9. dxe5 dxe5 10. e4 Nc6 11. Nd5 Rf7?! {Nxd5 12.cxd5 fxe4 13.Ng5 Nd4 with approximate equality} 12. Ng5 Rd7 13. exf5 gxf5 14. Bb2 Nb4 15. Qb1 Nbxd5 16. cxd5 Rxd5? {anything that maintains material equality is better} 17. Bxd5+ Nxd5 18. Re1 Qh5? {Qg6} 19. Qd1 Qxd1 20. Raxd1 c6 21. Bxe5 Bh6 22. h4 Bd7 23. Nh3 Be8 24. Nf4 Bf7 25. f3 Bf8 26. Nxd5 Bxd5 27. Kg2 a5 28. Rb1 Bb4 29. Re2 a4 30. bxa4 Rxa4 31. a3 Bf8 32. Rxb7 Rxa3 33. Rf2 Re3 34. Bf4 Rc3 35. Rc7 h5 36. Be5 Re3 37. Bf4 Rc3 38. Bg5 Bg7 39. Rb2?! {simply Re7 followed by Re3 breaks the pressure against f3} Rxf3 40. Rb8+ Kh7 41. Rd8 Be4 42. Rf8? {Kg1 is +4.0 according to Fritz 11} f4 43. Bf6 Rxg3+ 44. Kf1 Bd5 45. Bd4 Kh6 46. Bxg7+ Rxg7 47. Rh8+ Kg6 48. Rxg7+ Kxg7 49. Rxh5 Kg6 50. Rg5+ Kf6?! {Kh6} 51. Kf2 Be4 52. Rg4 Kf5 53. Rg1? {Rg7} Kf6 54. h5? {Rg8} c5 55. Rc1 Kg5 56. Rxc5+ Kh6 57. Re5 Bc2 58. Rd5 Bb3 59. Rf5 Bd1 60. Rxf4 Bxh5 {We played on for another 50 moves until the game was officially drawn.} 1/2-1/2

Update on Thursday afternoon: I got word from the Chess Room staff that DeGuzman beat Mezentsev and Shankland beat Young. The standings above reflect these two results.